Thursday, April 17, 2008

It is almost 5:00 PM in Perm. Today was not such a good day for Alex or me. I went to breakfast and shortly thereafter I started to feel sick and nauseous. I ‘m not sure why because I ate the exact same breakfast I have been eating since I got here: Cheese and boiled potatoes in sauce and two cups of coffee. We got to the orphanage around 11:00 and Anastasia had Alex all ready for us in the big music room and told us that he too was getting a cold and had had a bad night.

It was easy to tell that our little boy was not feeling well at all, but fortunately he did not have a temperature. The resident Doctor seems to think that he could also be feeling a bit nervous due to all the attention he has been getting lately. Something I am sure he is not used to at the baby house. I am not stopping of course, but I am also being very careful not to overwhelm him.

Next on my list of icky things: today was fish-day at the orphanage. They brought the usual soup with carrots, potatoes and bread, and some sort of fish concoction that he didn’t like. It also didn’t help my nausea. As soon as the tray shows up, he goes right for the cup of juice and doesn’t stop until it is all finished; although today I took the cup away from him when it was half full and refilled it with the water and juice that I bring every day as contraband. Getting him to eat was impossible. I assumed it was a combination of the yucky fish and being sick. He had a toy in one hand and his cup on the other and kept hitting the table pretty hard which I took as ‘I don’t care what you say or do; I am not eating this chow’!

We called for Anastasia to see if we could get something other than fish, but this is no restaurant and she was busy so I kept on trying. She showed up just a few minutes later and pretty much just shove-down a few tablespoons of the soup and bread while talking to him really fast, but she too gave up on feeding him the fish. Every time she tried, he would close his lips really tight…it was actually cute and funny. Whatever she was saying to him in Russian included the words Mama and Arizona and he just starred at her. I want to bring her to the US with me. He sure listened to her!

I had planned to meet Meghan (the lady from Seattle) and her son at the pool at 1:00 PM but I didn’t make it back until closer to two. I went down anyway and hang with them until a little bit ago. I didn’t want to miss the chance at the pool, sauna and steam-room. Weirdly enough, it is by reservation only plus you have to pay to use it. The nice thing about it is that during your reserved time, no one else is allowed in there so we shared the expense and had the entire Wellness Center to ourselves for almost two hours.

My last mishap of the day? I accidentally broke a big bottle of Pepsi in the bathroom as I was trying to throw it in the garbage can. I called housekeeping and they did a good job cleaning it up and making sure there wasn’t any glass left but now I am paranoid, especially since little baby Alex is going to take over this place in five days.

I have been taking medicine all day and still don’t feel very good. I will be skipping dinner tonight, keep on drinking a lot of mineral water, continue to take more medicine and will pray that I feel better in the morning. I am looking forward to a nice and long visit with Alex tomorrow and hopefully he too will be feeling a lot better. I don’t think I will see him Saturday or Sunday, although Roma told me today we were going to try but I am not sure what he meant. Who knows, maybe we are sneaking-in the back door…